Star Fox: The Rogue Aparoids
by PGRetro
Summary: A new threat emmerges...after defeating the Aparoid army long ago, a new threat by the name of Black Hawk rears it's ugly head. Now the only one left who can stop it...is Falco Lombardi.
1. Chapter 1

_Some years ago, in the Lylat system, the Cornerian fleet was under attack by a race of disgusting, horrific, and indescribably powerful creatures. These were the Aparoids. The Starfox team managed to deliver a potion to the queen, so that she, along with the rest of the Aparoids, would be destroyed. This story takes place exactly one year from that day._

"Man, what is this stuff?" Fox was asking himself as he tended to his fallen comrade. He and Falco had been exploring the snowy planet, Fichina, due to some strange reports. The local inhabitants had claimed to have seen some strange aliens invading the weather tower. Peppy had assigned Fox and Falco do go on foot, and Krystal and Slippy to scour the skies.

When the team had reached the planet, Fox and Falco landed their Arwings outside the weather tower. They snuck in, letting Falco go first, since he was the fastest and quietest. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to see what was coming. Falco was pounced on by a giant alien creature, it's black and crimson tentacles wrapping around his arms and legs, leaving him helpless. Slippy and Krystal managed to blow it to bits from their Arwings, but not before the creature had seeped some of itself into Falco's bloodstream.

Fox rushed over to the blue bird, which was slowly turning black and red. "This seems familiar…where have I seen this before?" Fox asked himself; he couldn't remember everything under the current circumstances. He hoisted Falco over his shoulder and brought him to his Arwing. They took off toward the Great Fox, leaving the other two to deal with the rest of the aliens.

Fox gave his friend's limp, cold body to Peppy. He could figure it out, no doubt. "You're not going to believe this, Fox," Peppy muttered, "but I know where this came from. Falco…has been infected by the Aparoids, just like Pigma was."

"That's impossible!" Fox shouted, "We destroyed them all when we destroyed the queen! They were all linked to her! Unless…" Fox pondered the idea for a moment.

Peppy took a sample of Falco's blood and put it under a microscope. "It seems," he said, "that there were some Aparoids that weren't linked to the queen. They must be rouge Aparoids. Luckily, since you got him here so quickly, I can take a sample of Falco's blood to create an antidote."

Fox watched as his friend began to wither away, and his eyes turn a bright shade of red. He could swear it looked like his soul was being sucked from his body. "It's finished!" Peppy yelled, "And it only took me a few hours."

Peppy administered the antidote through a syringe into Falco's neck. In only a matter of minutes, the bird was back on his feet again. "What happened?" he asked his team mates.

"You were infected by some sort of rouge Aparoids," Fox said, "but luckily, Peppy made an antidote, so now you're…"

He was cut off by a scream from down the hallway. Slippy ran into the room, lasers firing left and right. "It's Krystal," he yelled, "she's in some sort of a trance. She turned all red and started to…"

Slippy stopped in the middle of his sentence when a long, red tentacle pierced his stomach. It came from a creature in the hallway. It came from…Krystal, at least, what used to be Krystal. She too was now infected by the Aparoids. Slippy fell to the floor with a thud, and the rest of the team started to run to the Arwings.

In an instant, Slippy was back on his feet, infected like Krystal, and shot out a long, sharp tongue at Peppy. It hit him in the chest, and he too fell. "You two remember…" he said with his final breath, "the antidote is still in the ship! You have to…" He couldn't get any more words out; his body was no longer his own.

All of a sudden, there were only two left. Fox and Falco ducked behind the corner. "We need to get to the Arwings," Falco said, "they're our only hope to get outta here!"

"No," Fox yelled, "we have to get the antidote!" And with that, he ran around the corner, heading for the lab.

"Ah, who needs him…" Falco started, when Fox's pierced body fell next to him. He looked around the corner, but there was nobody there_. _He thought to himself, _Who could have done this? _He had absolutely no explanation for how Fox had become infected, something he didn't like to admit often. But he had no choice. He had to get to the Arwings.

As he ran, his teammates stumbled after him; Slippy, Fox, Peppy, Krystal, all shells of their former selves. As he ran, Fox shot out a tentacle which pierced Falco's arm. "Ah, you gotta be kidding me…" But he didn't become a lifeless Aparoid like the others. He figured that the antidote must be permanent.

He finally got to the docking bay, and he hopped in his ship and took off. He didn't know what was going to happen to the rest of his crew, but he did know one thing…

"I'm going to stop this Aparoid infection," he muttered, "if it's the last thing I do."


	2. Chapter 2

Falco's heart pounded in his chest. His G-diffuser was stabilized, he had working radio…but he had lost his team. His friends. The Aparoids had gone too far this time. This means war. War for the people Falco cared about…even if he didn't admit it.

Falco sat up, shocked, as his screen started buzzing. "Message from…ah, you gotta be kiddin' me," he said as he read the name. He touched the screen, and a canine's face lit up the screen. Falco was surprised to see the look of smugness wiped off the guy's face for once.

"Hello, birdie," Wolf O'Donnell said coldly.

"What do you want?" Falco said to him, pretending to be bored out of his mind. "There's gotta be a reason for you calling me." Suddenly, a red ship appeared outside Falco's cockpit. He looked around, his face somewhat nervous and riddled with confusion. "Why didn't you bring the rest of your team?" Falco asked, trying to sound calm, "You couldn't outmaneuver me by yourself."

Wolf's eyes had a sudden look of despair then. "They…can't help me right now. So why didn't _you_bring _your _team?" He asked defensively.

Falco tried to think of an excuse. His mind was blank; he was still in shock about the events of a few hours ago. Trying to save his friends…he had to get the antidote. It was probably on the Great Fox still. If he snuck aboard he could probably-

"Falco!" Wolf yelled, interrupting his train of thought, "where are your guys right now?"

"They're…um, well, tied up at the moment."

"By that do you mean they're being controlled by those damn Aparoids from a year or so ago?"

Falco hit his head against the top of the ship. He reminded himself to sit up slowly next time. "Is that…did Leon and Panther get the same deal?"

Wolf nodded his head sadly. "They had to sacrifice themselves to save me…I gotta get them back to normal, if I don't, I can't live with myself…"

This was a side of Wolf that Falco had _never _seen before. He was practically at tears. _What a wimp, _Falco thought, until he realized the exact same thoughts were going through his head less than five minutes ago. "So, you need my help gettin' them back to normal?"

Wolf suddenly sat up and snarled. _That's the Wolf O'Donnell I know, _Falco thought to himself. _Never showing any weak points. I'd admire him, if I didn't hate his guts._

"I never need anyone else's help!" Wolf yelled, "I just need to know if there's any way to get them back to normal!"

"Calm down, buddy…there's this antidote, but it's on the Great Fox, and that's all filled with the Aparoid-ees. But, if you came with me, we might be able to grab it and run. Y'know, before this spreads across the galaxy."

Wolf's eyes suddenly bulged out of their sockets. "Well, you may want to postpone that…we've got company."

Falco looked out his mirror. Sure enough, there was something coming his way. He couldn't quite make it out, though... "Ah, crap," he muttered as he powered up his engines. There were two Arwings coming his way…with a distinct red and black color to them.

He and Wolf boosted away at full speed. The Aparoids' ships were faster, though, and they soon were right on their tails. "This is the part where Fox shoots down the guy behind me," Falco yelled to Wolf over the intercom, "but he ain't here, so you're gonna be doing his job!"

"Alright, calm down," Wolf muttered, then did a somersault to get behind the ship tailing Falco. He could see an infected Fox sitting at the controls. He started shooting right at the back of the ship, aiming for the main engines.

"Wait!" Falco called, "Shoot down his wings! I don't want him to crash, just slow down! He can't be cured while he's dead!" He prayed Wolf wasn't so mad at Fox he would kill him.

After a moment's hesitation, Wolf refocused his fire on the wings. When they were both down, Fox's ship was forced to turn back to the Great Fox. Falco saw the gap he left, and took the opportunity to fly down to the other ship.

Inside the other ship was Peppy Hare. His eyes were soul-piercing, and his body stiff. He spotted Falco, and then rammed the two Arwings together. Falco cussed, then used the brake to get behind him.

He started firing on the wings. When the right wing fell off, however, Peppy reversed directions. "I'm on him," Wolf shouted, and started to follow him. Suddenly, Peppy's Arwing spun around so fast Wolf didn't have time to react. He blasted down both of Wolf's wings with some sort of missile that Falco had never seen before. He suddenly noticed the cannon-like Aparoid tentacles on the wing of the ship.

"The Aparoids upgraded the Arwing's technology," Falco said to Wolf, "that's how they spun around so fast!"

"Great, just great," Wolf muttered as he flew around the modified Arwing, "the only thing is, I'm gonna have to land. I can't stay up here wingless for too much longer."

Falco spotted a planet beneath them. Sauria, the dinosaur planet. Falco had never been too fond of that planet. "You can land on that planet down there," Falco said.

Wolf headed down to Sauria. Falco quickly advanced on Peppy, shooting off his other wing. He then followed Wolf down to the planet's surface.

He hopped out of the Arwing and ran towards the Wolfen. He ran up to Wolf, and Wolf punched him in the face. "Just needed to get that out, after so many years," he said, "_now _we can start helping each other."

Suddenly, Falco heard a roar in the distance. He scrambled into one of the ruins, and Wolf followed. Falco peeked his head out of the small crack, and his heart sank. They were safe in the cave to the ruins, no doubt about it, but they couldn't stay in there forever. And outside, On a hill in the distance was a giant, black and red dinosaur. They were no longer safe.

The Aparoids had infected the Red Eye King.


End file.
